First CUs In North America Sprout In Canada

QUEBEC, Canada-Credit unions came to the United States from French-speaking Canada (see related story, page 26). In Canada, the first "caisse populaire" was created in Lévis, Quebec, in December 1900 by Alphonse Desjardins. Outside Quebec, Ottawa's Civil Service Savings and Loan Society was established in 1908 for public service employees. In the Atlantic provinces, credit unions sprang up in the 1930s and 1940s, with help from CUNA's Roy Bergengren, in response to the needs of fishers, farmers and miners. CUs subsequently spread to the Prairie provinces, where they developed largely in response to difficulties faced by farmers in obtaining financing during the Great Depression of the 1930s. There are currently close to 1,600 individual CUs and caisses populaires in Canada with more than 10 million members.